Akiko Kawasaki (1979–) is a Japanese novelist born in Betsukai, Hokkaido. Drawing on her experience in dairy farming and sheep breeding, she writes vividly about the relationship between people, animals, and the natural world of northern Japan. She won the Miura Ayako Literary Award in 2014 for "Gufū no Ō" ("King of the Gale"), the Oyabu Haruhiko Award in 2019 for "Nikudan" ("Human Bullet"), and the Nitta Jirō Literary Prize in 2020 for "Tsuchi ni Aganau" ("Atoning to the Earth"). In 2024, she received the 170th Naoki Prize for "Tomogui" ("Eating Together"), a novel set in late Meiji-era Hokkaido that explores the fundamental relationship between humanity, nature, and the cycle of life and death through the story of a bear hunter.